Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela wanted the city to stop payments to attorney Ben Kuehne in cases where he was representing former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla in civil court. Kuehne is also Diaz de la Portilla’s attorney in his felony criminal case on money laundering, bribery and other public corruption charges.
But before he could vote on a resolution he brought to the commission last week, he got news that ADLP had already replaced Kuehne with former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who was charged with federal bribery and extortion charges himself, caught in an FBI sting plotting to take some bogus grant money in 2013.
He and ADLP will get along just fine. Birds of a feather.
According to April 10 orders from both judges in the separate cases, Pizzi, who was later acquitted, will represent Diaz de la Portilla in the case against Gabela — trying to get him disqualified from last November’s elections on residency status, because they intentionally drew him out of the district — and be his city-paid defense against former State Rep. Manny Prieguez, a lobbyist representing the Rickenbacker Marina operator who says that Diaz de la Portilla shook them down, demanding his bagman become a silent partner of the marina company in exchange for a new contract.
Read related: Miami’s Alex Diaz de la Portilla arrested on corruption, pay-for-play park deal
But the city is still paying the legal bills.
Also, Kuehne was once Pizzi’s attorney so this seems like it’s less of a separation and more like some kind of inside deal.
The resolution should have been to stop paying all legal costs for Diaz de la Portilla, who was arrested in September on public corruption charges and charged with 12 felonies, including money laundering and bribery. ADLP was removed from office by the governor. He lost a race to get back into office in November. It is unfathomable that taxpayers are still footing this criminal’s bills.
“Vicky was in charge until recently and they do whatever they want to do,” Gabela said about City Attorney Victoria “Tricky Vicky” Mendez, who was removed from her post last week and replaced by Interim City Attorney George Wysong until the new Acting City Attorney John Greco gets back from vacation next week.
Apparently, Gabela is satisfied because he didn’t want Kuehne to simultaneously get paid by the city and sue the city, which is also a defendant in the lawsuit to disqualify him from the ballot.
“Apparently, he picked,” Gabela told Political Cortadito.
Read related: Miami’s Alex Diaz de la Portilla loses re-election bid to Miguel Gabela on 4th try
Gabela said he has requested that the city stop paying the legal fees in the Prieguez shake-down case and that Mendez has said it’s easier and cheaper (?) to pay ADLP’s legal fees now and get reimbursed if he loses than have to reimburse him if he wins. None of that makes sense to Ladra. And Gabela says Mendez has it backwards. “If he’s found innocent, then we can pay it.
“We need to set an example,” the new D1 commissioner said. “If you’re coming to serve and you’re going to engage in corrupt activities, we’re not going to defend you.”
There’s nothing to indicate that Pizzi, who did not return calls and emails from Ladra, has sued the city of Miami for anything or anyone.
He did sue the town of Miami Lakes for $2.5 to $3.5 million — depending on the day of the week you asked — in legal defense costs, which would include fees from Kuehne. A judge said in 2016 that the town was not liable because Pizzi was not acting in his official capacity as mayor, but Pizzi appealed that decision and, last year, another judge ruled that the town of Miami Lakes was on the hook.
Pizzi was arrested in August 2013 after a year-long sting set up by the FBI to specifically target local electeds. Pizzi and former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño were the only ones charged after undercover agents caught them accepting cash and campaign contributions in exchange for getting grant requests passed through their own and other cities, funds that would never reach their intended purpose but be split between the mayors and the agents posed as federal employees.
While Maroño entered a plea deal and got a 37-month sentence, Pizzi was found not guilty. He ran for mayor again, getting an abysmal 23% against current Mayor Manny Cid. That’s something else Pizzi has in common with ADLP.
Read related: Judge dismisses Michael Pizzi lawsuit vs town for legal fees
What’s wrong with this picture? It doesn’t matter if it’s Kuehne or Pizzi or freaking Johnny Cochran. Taxpayers should not pay one more dime of Diaz de la Portilla’s defense for what is really criminal behavior in the shake-down case, nor for his offense on the people’s choice for District 1. Talk about sour grapes.
Think about it: The city is paying an outside attorney by the hour to try to unseat an elected commissioner on behalf of a former and disgraced commissioner awaiting a bribery trial. It sounds like a plot line in a limited series on Netflix.
Kuehne was paid the lion’s share of the $2 million plus that the city spent from 2019 to 2023 defending Commissioner Joe Carollo from the civil lawsuit for violating the First Amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen, which he eventually lost. Last June, a jury awarded Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who accused Carollo of weaponizing the city’s legal, police and code enforcement departments against them in retaliation for supporting his opponent in 2017.
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But that’s not all the work that Kuehne has does for the city. Kuehne is their go-to attorney for a bunch of election stuff. In 2020 he represented the city in it’s lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County to demand more early voting locations in Hispanic neighborhood at the same time as he represented Carollo in a challenge against a citizen-led recall against him.
The county’s Commission on Ethics and Public Trust then executive director Jose Arrojo had the anatomy to say there was no conflict with that and that Carollo wouldn’t have to recuse himself from voting to retain Keuhne — his personal attorney who could, oh, I don’t know, provide him with a discount as a thank you?
Miami taxpayers still paying ADLP’s legal fees to new attorney, Michael Pizzi added by Ladra on
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